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<TITLE>Computer Club BASIC Lesson #2: Demo/Tutorial</TITLE>
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<b>Anguilla Library Computer Club</b><br>
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<h1>BASIC Lesson #4: Demo and Tutorial</h1>

Each of our computers contains a complete on-line <a href="basic02.zip">BASIC tutorial</a>,
including demonstration games and lessons.
Here are some helpful hints:
<ul>
<li>These programs were written a <i>LONG TIME AGO</i> when
keyboards had <i>only CAPITAL</i> letters!
You must press <b>Caps Lock</b> before doing this lesson.
And remember to press <b>Enter</b> after you type your input.

<li>This lesson uses GWBASIC, which is older than QBASIC.
If you are doing a BASIC lesson and the tutorial
wants you to interact with GWBASIC yourself, 
you will see the word <code>OK</code> on the screen.
To get back in the tutorial, type <b>RUN</b>. To get back to
the club menu, type <b>SYSTEM</b>.

<li>If you write a BASIC program and it goes out of control (perhaps
printing POLLY forever), you can stop it with the BREAK key.
This is usually <b>Ctrl-PrtSc</b> on your keyboard.

<li><i>''Quotation Marks:''</i>
BASIC expects you to type <b>strings</b> in quotes, as in
<code>"Hi World!"</code>. The tutorial displays this as
<code>''Hi World!''</code> on the screen because PRINT "Hi World!"
would actually print <i>Hi World!</i> without the quotes. 
</ul>

<img alt="" align=right src="basic04.gif">

<h2>Activity: BASIC Syntax</h2>

The <b>Basic Tutorial</b> is option 11 on the main menu and
has 10 lessons. Start with lesson 2 and see
how many  you complete in 20 minutes.
Try more next time.
<ol>
<li><b>Guide.</b> This is a reference
to GWBASIC syntax and commands. 
<small>"guide.bas"</small>

<li><b>Print.</b> This is a good place to start, then work your way through
the other lessons. 
At the end of each lesson, you may
practise with the real GWBASIC
by typing "Z". If you do so, when you are done
 you must either type <b>SYSTEM</b> to get back to the club menu or
<b>LOAD "BTMENU.BAS",R</b> to get back to the Basic menu. <small>"print.bas"</small>

<li><b>Modes.</b> BASIC is either in Immediate mode or Programming mode.
<small>"modes.bas"</small>

<li><b>GoTo.</b> How to jump around. Hint: do <b>NEW</b> before writing a program. Otherwise you are modifying the lesson program
itself, which is quite large. 
<small>"goto.bas"</small>

<li><b>Let.</b> Assign numbers or string values to storage variables. 
<small>"let.bas"</small>

<li><b>For and Next.</b> How to repeat something many times, but not forever. 
<small>"fornext.bas"</small>

<li><b>Input.</b> Reading characters from the keyboard. 
<small>"input.bas"</small>

<li><b>If and Then.</b> Do it this way sometimes, that way others. 
<small>"ifthen.bas"</small>

<li><b>Read and Data.</b> Fill your program with data. 
<small>"readdata.bas"</small>

<li><b>Gosub and Return.</b> Break your program into smaller pieces, called <i>subroutines</i>. 
<small>"gr.bas"</small>

</ol>



<b>Exploring:</b> Each lesson and game
is a separate program and has its own BAS file, as in <code>goto.bas</code>.
The file names are shown above in small letters. If you
want to explore, type <b>LOAD "GOTO.BAS"</b> in GWBASIC,
then <b>LIST</b>. To get into GWBASIC, type <b>B</b> at the Basic Tutorial menu.
<p>
<b>Word Scramble.</b> This is one of the games on the main menu: option 5. Try
word group A (3 letters) and D (4 letters), then Q to get back to
the menu. Now study the program itself:
<small>"scramble.bas"</small>


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